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Tag Archives: whole foods

It’s January. The trees are brown and barren. Snow covers the ground. But now is the time to sign up for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Community Supported Agriculture works a bit like the stock market. You pay for a share of the farm and get a share of the harvest delivered to your home or to a nearby pick-up location weekly. (Sorry that’s where my knowledge of the stock market, and my simile, end.) Many farms offer 1/2 shares or mini-shares for those worried they can’t eat a bushel of veggies in a week. Some CSAs also include visits to the farm and free pick-your-own berries. The fruit and veggies you get are LOCAL, SEASONAL, often ORGANIC, SUSTAINABLY GROWN and from small FAMILY FARMS.

I know these are the buzz words of the moment. So go ahead, sign up for a CSA to be hip. But you could also sign up to:

There’s plenty more, too. Check out Local Harvest to search for CSA, farmers markets and more by zip code. But don’t delay, CSA usually give first dibs to previous members and then fill up any remaining slots FAST.

There are many dilemmas to the Western* way of life and mindset, and to me, a primary problem is the desire to neatly break-down and categorize things that are interconnected. Another issue of the “Western way,” if you will, is the desire for quick and easy fixes – instant gratification. For example, if someone is struggling with depression, often they will be prescribed an anti-depressant rather than addressing the issue from a holistic approach that examines mind, body, and spirit.

Therefore, I value Michael Pollan’s integrated approach to food. He offers no quick fixes or outrageous promises (“Lose 15lbs in 15 days!”) but he does make a strong case against the Western diet and the food industry and so-called science that supports it. And, thankfully, he offers an alternative to the Western diet other than subsisting off hunting and gathering.

Pollan emphasizes the need to not only examine what nutrients (vitamins, minerals, calories, grams of fat, sugar, etc) one consumes, but also in what form they are consumed (whole foods, processed foods, canned, peeled, etc), how they are consumed (three main meals, small samplings throughout the day, what order, what speed, etc) and even who they are consumed with (alone, friends, the TV). Then, of course, to examine one’s health we must also take into account their levels of physical activity, role in a community, mental state, spirituality and heredity.

So it’s easy to see why issues of food and health become difficult to study. There are countless variables. Pollan argues that the reductionist scientific method (a prime example of Western modernity) used by many nutritionists have come to erroneous conclusions because of their focus on only one aspect of something as complex as food and health.

Dan and I both just finished this book – In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. It was one of those books that captured much of what I’d already been thinking about food, eating and life in general for years. But much of the research and evidence he provides go far beyond merely suggesting yet another fad diet. Reading this book has helped solidify my new obsession: providing an alternative to the the Western lifestyle and mindset.

I have so many thoughts swirling around about this book. One of the fascinating things Pollan says is that fine white flour was the original fast food. And that food is more than the sum of its nutrient parts.

But first:

a) Read In Defense of Food for yourself

b) Join me in investigating more on the subject (I hope to Jonathan Safran Foer & Wendell Barry’s view on the subject pronto).

c) Ask yourself, “What is food?” and “What is eating?” They may seem like stupid questions, until you realize the revolution that’s occurred in recent times regarding these basic and fundamental aspects of daily life.